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Measuring & Mapping

Where, how far, and how much? People have invented an astonishing array of devices to answer seemingly simple questions like these. Measuring and mapping objects in the Museum's collections include the instruments of the famous—Thomas Jefferson's thermometer and a pocket compass used by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their expedition across the American West. A timing device was part of the pioneering motion studies of Eadweard Muybridge in the late 1800s. Time measurement is represented in clocks from simple sundials to precise chronometers for mapping, surveying, and finding longitude. Everyday objects tell part of the story, too, from tape measures and electrical meters to more than 300 scales to measure food and drink. Maps of many kinds fill out the collections, from railroad surveys to star charts.

This is a disc water meter made by the Badger Meter Manufacturing Company in Milwaukee, Wisc. It has a frost-proof bottom, fits a ⅝” pipe, and has a capacity of 26 gallons per minute. The serial number (2,335,475) dates from 1942.

This is a disc water meter made by the Badger Meter Manufacturing Company in Milwaukee, Wisc. It fits a ⅝” pipe and has a capacity of 26 gallons per minute. The serial number is no longer legible.

According to the firm, this meter was “so constructed that the current of water completely fills the receptacle both above and below the measuring mechanism. The entire chamber is thus constantly flushed, preventing the secretion of sediment which might injuriously affect the working of the meter, or the unsanitary stagnation of water in a blind pocket.” The frost-proof bottom is a “plate of soft gray cast iron thoroughly galvanized and rust proof, with a low breaking strength of 600 pounds.” If the water in the meter should freeze, the bottom plate would break, “thus relieving all strain long before the pressure has reached a point where it is dangerous to the interior parts.”

This is disc water meter was made by the Badger Meter Manufacturing Company in Milwaukee, Wisc. It fits a ⅝” pipe, has a capacity of 26 gallons per minute, and was designed for use with corrosive waters. SC-IOT refers to a split case, interchangeable oil gear train. The serial number (2,636,483) dates from 1946.

This disc water meter was made by the Badger Meter Manufacturing Company in Milwaukee, Wisc. SC-SOT stands for split case, sealed oil gear train.The split case could be used in warmer climates where there was no danger of freezing. It fits a ⅝” pipe, has a capacity of 26 gallons per minute, and was designed for use with corrosive waters. The serial number (828,438) dates from 1929.

This disc water meter was made by the Badger Meter Manufacturing Company in Milwaukee, Wisc. It fits a ⅝” pipe, and has a capacity of 26 gallons per minute. It has a frost-proof bottom, and could be used with corrosive waters. There is no serial number. A-SOT refers to sealed oil gear train.

This turbine water meter was made by the Badger Meter Manufacturing Company in Milwaukee, Wisc. The serial number (1,329,421) dates from 1936. It fits ⅝” or ¾” pipes, and has a capacity of 17.5 gallons per minute.

The Badger Meter Manufacturing Company in Milwaukee, Wisc., developed the AZTECA water meter in the early 1930s after receiving an order for 30,000 water meters for Mexico City. The AZTECA was a rotary, multijet device that was simple, durable, and accurate. It had a split case, and so could be used in places where water did not normally freeze. This example fits a ⅝” pipe, and has a capacity of 15 gallons per minute. The serial number (1,544,940) dates from 1937.

This is a rotary multijet water meter made by the Badger Meter Manufacturing Company in Milwaukee, Wisc. It fits a ⅝” pipe, and has a capacity of about 13 gallons per minute. Its split case was designed for use in areas where water did not normally freeze. The serial number (1,140,258) dates from 1933. Badger trade literature for this meter boasted that “Simplicity of Design Assures Long Life of Operation.”

This disc water meter has a split case that has been cut away to reveal gears and chamber. It was made by the Badger Meter Manufacturing Company in Milwaukee, Wisc. It fits a ⅝” pipe, and has a capacity of 26 gallons per minute.

This is a disc water meter with frost-proof bottom and serial number 3,143,709. It fit a ⅝” pipe, and was made by the Pittsburgh Equitable Meter Company in the mid-1940s. Pittsburgh Equitable described it as “an instrument unsurpassed in the water measurement field,” explaining that it had “a bronze upper case and a brass lined cast iron breakable bottom plate, amply heavy and strong enough to withstand pressure far in excess of that encountered under ordinary conditions of service, the bottom plate, however, designed to break when exposed to the excessive strain imposed by freezing.”